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| Ned Pratt |
In that
other century I photographed most of Vancouver’s architects. One I particularly
liked and we became friends. Ned Prat’s firm that he inherited previously, designed
and built our Cenotaph and the Burrard Street Bridge. Anyone who has crossed
that bridge recently must know that it needs to have the rust removed and be
repainted.
This city is
one Pratt would no longer understand or recognize. He would see hundreds of
city workers tearing up streets all over and surrounded by ubiquitous orange
cones and with signs (our city mantra) saying – expect delays – construction & be prepared to stop.
My smart
wife Rosemary (New Dublin, Onario) took us away from Mexico City to Vancouver
in 1975. When I drive now (Rosemary died
6 years ago) I sometimes not only communicate with her in my mind but I
find myself saying, “Rosemary you would not recognize and love the city you
brought us to."
Tomorrow I
am going to the Woodward Instructional Resources Centre at UBC at 7:15 to
listen to a lecture by Dr. Wade Davis on Canada and being Canadian. I decided
today to find out where the centre was so I drove to UBC. Tenth Ave is blocked
for about 10 blocks so I went by 16th. When I arrived at the mall I
put my destination on my car navigation device. It did not recognize the place
I wanted to go. My phone did work but… I drove for 45 minutes as streets were blocked
or were dead-ends. I asked at least 20 people if they knew where the centre
was. Nobody knew. When I finally found it I discovered that I could not get there in
my car but had to use some impossible roundabout route. The amount of
construction at UBC exceeds any in our city.
I have three
questions. How many city and university workers are on the payrolls? Do all of these constructions have to be done
at the same time? Why are so many avenues going East/West constantly blocked? A
terrible example is Broadway.